Oi, Sheryl
by Attharun
Summary: Pathetic. I wasn't scared of the Vajra, I wasn't scared of that megalomaniac Grace, I wasn't scared of certain death. But being rejected by Sheryl, THAT scares me.


Disclaimer: Macross Frontier does not belong to me. Never has, though I absolutely love the tech...

a/n: My first Macross Frontier story, and I don't remember a lot of details from the series. So correct me if I had anything wrong. Other than that, leave a note and tell me what you think. :)

* * *

**Oi, Sheryl**

"No, no... _No_... Sheryl!" A disgruntled Saotome Alto yelled, reaching out for the pink-haired woman conjured up by his dream. Yet his cold, trembling hands felt nothing but air...

His eyelids fluttered open. "Dream," he muttered, sitting up straight on his bunk bed and rubbing his temples with his fingers. _And a damn scary one at that._ He shuddered at the pseudo events his subconscious had made for him. The Galactic Fairy, "_the_ Sheryl Nome" (as she herself often told him with an air of arrogance) lay on a hospital bed, looking so vulnerable, as fragile as thin ice. The disease she carried had resurfaced, Alto was told. The V-something-or-other... He couldn't even remember it anymore. He willed himself not to look away from her eyes, as she gasped her final words.

_"I'll... love you... al... ways... Alto. Sa... yona... ra..."_

Alto shook his head violently, sending his long raven hair flying to and fro behind him. A childish groan from the top bunk broke through his morbid thoughts.

"Alto-senpai, something the matter?" Luca's groggy voice asked. Alto could make out a silhouette of a head sticking out from the edge of the bed on top of his.

"Nothing. Had a dream," he said shortly. "Sorry I woke you, Luca."

The head slowly disappeared, probably to place itself on its rightful place - a pillow. "You could spare yourself all those nightmares if you just told Sheryl already."

"Huh? What do you...?"

"Good night, Alto-senpai!" Luca cut in, quite forcefully, before the "princess" could say any more.

Alto rolled his eyes and, with a tired huff, flopped back down his bed. It was at times like these when Alto missed Michel Blanc and his manly advice.

* * *

It had been quite a number of months since the epic battle above the Vajra home world. By then, the people of Frontier had settled snugly into their new planet, suffering not a lot of problems thus far. There, they no longer had to ration their water and air supply. There, anyone who desired to fly into an endless sky was free to do so, without worrying about hitting the top of a stronger-than-glass dome.

Sweet freedom at its best.

Now, if only a certain Saotome Alto could get around to confessing his undying love to a particular singer, the world would have been such a nice place to live in.

Instead, the SMS pilot found himself running about, hopelessly clueless. If not, he flew around in erratic circles, _still_ hopelessly clueless.

The next night he woke up screaming, yet again, because of another "Sheryl nightmare", as Luca had called it.

"Seriously, Alto-senpai, ever since you and Sheryl stopped living together, you've been like that."

Alto, still struggling to breathe normally after that awful whatever-it-was, said, "Like what?"

"Like _that_. Talking in your sleep, and then... all that yelling. I think I'm actually going to LAI for some specialized earplugs one of these days," Luca mused.

"Well, I didn't want to impose on her. I mean, if we were still under the same roof but not _together_..."

"So why don't you be together, then?"

A simple question. With a simple answer from Alto, who, until recently had been in profuse denial of his feelings for Sheryl.

"I'm... afraid." He let out a sharp sigh. "Pathetic. I wasn't scared of the Vajra, I wasn't scared of that megalomaniac Grace, I wasn't scared of certain death. But being rejected by Sheryl, _that_ scares me."

He felt Luca shifting his position at the top bunk. "It ended up well with Nanase-san and me," he paused, and Alto could sense him blush then. "Nanase-chan," he corrected himself. "So what are the odds?"

"Then... How do I do it? Do I just come up to her and say, 'Oi, Sheryl, let's talk'?" Alto said, more to himself than to Luca. "Ugh. No experience in this department."

"Michel would have been the guy to ask when it comes to things like that."

Both fell silent, each absorbed in their own thoughts of their fallen friend.

Finally, Luca spoke. "Ah! I know someone who could help you, Alto-senpai."

And that was how Alto found himself walking up the steps of the Lee household, looking not for his close friend Ranka, but for her older brother.

"Ozma! Hey, Ozma!" He called, while knocking on the wooden door.

"Hey, that's squad leader to you, Skull-4!"

"We're not on call," Alto reminded him.

"Whatever," Ozma muttered, finally opening the door for the teenager. "Why did you get your butt in here, anyway? Ranka is out with Brera." The last word was said none too gently; evidently he was jealous of her little sister's treatment to her biological "onii-chan".

"Actually, it's you I need to talk to."

He raised an eyebrow. "If you're gonna ask me how I won over Cathy so you can use the same thing on Sheryl..."

Alto blinked, appalled that his intentions were _that_ obvious. "So you'll tell me, then?"

"No! That's classified!" Ozma answered with a dismissive wave. "You want to know your way around girls? Ask a _girl_, why don't you?"

That was the most enlightening idea that this story's hero had heard as of yet.

"Please don't tell me you never thought of that, Skull-4," Ozma deadpanned.

* * *

"A girl, Alto-kun?" Ranka's voice, one had that betrayed humanity before saving them from the clutches of doom at the last minute, rang.

"Yeah. Hypothetically, if I liked someone, how would I best tell her?"

At the corner of his eye, Alto could see Brera Sterne leaning on a tree trunk, his intense gaze on Ranka as she sat on the grass, eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully.

"Wouldn't it save you all the trouble if you just told Sheryl what's on your mind?" he said flatly, the statement sounding more of a command than a question.

Alto's heart skipped a beat. "I-I-I never mentioned Sheryl in my _hypothetical_ situation!" he sputtered.

He didn't notice the pained look the little girl in front of him tried to hide. But Brera, who was all-knowing when it came to his little sister, was instantly on her side, squeezing her shoulder gently. _It's about time she realizes... _his thoughts told him.

In the way that only brother and sister could comprehend, Ranka understood her brother's intentions. _I knew all along, anyway. _Even if it killed her, she would content herself with the fact that she'd helped Alto find happiness. _Okay, then. That's what I'll do, for you, Alto-kun._

"You might want to write this down, Alto-kun..." Ranka began. As Alto scrambled for a pen and paper, she shifted her gaze to her onii-chan, who brushed away her tears with a smile that mirrored hers.

And Alto, flustered as he was with his own situation, could not help but be oblivious to the sad scene.

* * *

The one time Alto was looking for the owner of that unmistakable mane of pink hair, Sheryl Nome had become unbelievably elusive. Although he saw her image everywhere on posters scattered around the city and on holographic images hovering over every intersection, the real thing was nowhere to be found.

"And when I _don't_ want to see her, she suddenly pops out of nowhere," the former Kabuki actor mumbled tersely, squatting on the rooftop of the newly-built Mihoshi Academy on the planet - a sign of defeat, most probably. "Unbelievable."

As if hearing his remark, the voice he had been wanting - longing, really - to hear asked, "Since when do you talk to yourself, Alto?"

Alto's eyes darted to Sheryl, the motion causing his ponytail to swing to one side with a swishing sound. He held back a "Where have you been?" and instead said, "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough to discover you've lost a few screws." A chuckle. And it was all Alto could do to stop himself from getting lost in the Galactic Fairy's laughter. As she sat beside him, a breeze brought her scent to him. He would have to stop himself from getting lost in _that_, too. "Is there anything bothering you?"

Alto cleared his throat. His hand clutched at the piece of paper in his pocket - the one Ranka had written on. "Actually, there is. See, there's this girl I'm having trouble talking to..."

"Really? How come I haven't noticed this? Who are you talking about?"

He shrugged. "Nah, you probably don't know her. Anyway," he looked fleetingly at the girl beside him, "Since you're a girl, I think you can help me."

A frown appeared on Sheryl's lips, and Alto had a feeling that his plan was not going well. "Though I may be the prettiest in Frontier, I'm not the only girl. I refuse. Why don't you go ask Ranka?" She paused. "Unless... _She_ happens to be-"

"Ah, no! Not Ranka," Alto said hastily, with a wave of his other hand. "I just need to know how I can tell her how I feel, without sounding like a loser."

Sheryl let out a sigh. "Well, Alto-kun, you don't even have to do much. Just go up to her, say your usual 'Oi, (insert name here)', and..."

"And tell her I love her?"

"And kiss her!" she said, with seemingly every drop of passion she held in her heart.

Alto was taken aback. "That's crazy! Isn't that too forward?"

"You say you have trouble talking to her, but you certainly have an easy time kissing. I would know," Sheryl added with a devilish (though Alto could easily pass it off as an angelic smile) smirk.

The pilot gave the singer an incredulous look. "So you think that's what I should do? No flair, no romantic, flowery words? No marching band with huge 'I love you' banners?"

Sheryl shook her head, fighting a laugh. "You watch too much television, Alto." She stood up then, and started to walk back inside the building.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"Flying! I'm gonna go 'borrow' Luca's new suit!" she answered with a quick wave. Alto watched as her pink hair disappeared behind the door to the inside of the building.

Suddenly one of his many "Sheryl nightmares", the most vivid one where Alto had seen the life leave her body, resurfaced in his head. _"I'll... love you... al... ways... Alto..."_

_Oh no you don't! _he thought, and without further delay he ran after the person he had long considered his first love. Probably his _only_ love, for that matter.

"Alto! What are you running for?" Sheryl asked, stopping in her tracks when she heard Alto's hurried footsteps.

He didn't speak at first, as he leaned a hand on the wall in front of her and stood, gasping for breath. Sheryl waited, none too patiently, tapping her foot on the floor and crossing her arms.

Finally Alto looked up and met her gaze, with an intensity that almost matched Brera's eyes on Ranka. A smile slowly creeped up on his sweat-laden face as he took careful, calculated steps towards Sheryl.

"Oi... Sheryl," he breathed.

And then he kissed her, like she'd told him to.

* * *

a/n: I loved writing this. Just so you know. I'm pretty sure more stories are coming from me. When I'm in the mood, though. LOL. Hope you liked.


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